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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 650

David Ben-Gurion

Cartoon illustrating Israelis' first election, January 25, 1948. (AP Photo/H. E. Munhall)
May 1, 2025, 11:58 am
Daily Briefing May 1: Day 573 – Ben-Gurion’s anguish upon the founding of Israel
In a special Independence Day episode, senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur takes us back to the first prime minister’s conflicted emotions as the nascent state fought enemies and division
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Haviv Rettig Gur
A copy of David Ben-Gurion's diary from May 14, 1948 (Ben-Gurion Archives)
April 28, 2025, 1:00 pm
Ben-Gurion diary entries on day of independence revealed: ‘I mourn among the joyful’
Document found in archives reveals how first PM worried over Arab invasion, writing on May 14, 1948, that nascent state’s fate was ‘in the hands of the security forces’
By ToI Staff
Adolf Eichmann standing in his glass cage, flanked by guards, in the Jerusalem courtroom during his trial in 1961 for war crimes committed during World War II. (AP Photo/File)
January 27, 2025, 4:06 pm
Israel national archive opens online access to 380,000 pages of Eichmann trial documents
Trove of scanned paperwork include prosecutors’ correspondence with Ben-Gurion, original testimonies including from writer Yehiel Dinur who met Nazi war criminal in Auschwitz
By AFP and ToI Staff
David Ben-Gurion's glasses back in their resting place atop the founding prime minister's desk at his hut-turned-commemorative museum in Kibbutz Sde Boker, southern Israel, from which a soldier had filched them during an educational tour, May 26, 2024. (Police spokesperson)
May 27, 2024, 10:11 pm
Ben-Gurion’s stolen glasses returned to Sde Boker museum
Police say spectacles found near military barracks hours after soldier snatched them during tour of first premier’s desert abode; pilferer interrogated, put on remand
By ToI Staff
A group of people in Jerusalem mark Israel's 75th Independence Day with a ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence, on April 26, 2023 (Credit: Mabua).
May 14, 2024, 9:01 am
Emerging Independence Day ritual inspires unity and gratitude in shadow of October 7
Reading the Declaration of Independence together in public bridges between secular and religious Israelis in a new-old tradition that can be adapted to any citizen’s faith
By Maya Zanger-Nadis
A statue depicting Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion that was set on fire on the beach in Tel Aviv, September 16, 2023 (Flash90)
September 21, 2023, 9:33 pm
Court orders release of suspect in torching of Ben Gurion statue to house arrest
Tel Aviv judge gives police 24 hours to appeal, criticizes their handling of probe into incident, says they were influenced by media attention
By ToI Staff
A statue depicting Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion that was set on fire on the beach in Tel Aviv, September 16, 2023 (Flash90)
September 16, 2023, 11:57 am
Iconic Ben-Gurion headstand statue on Tel Aviv beach badly burned in attack
Homeless man arrested; security increased at first PM’s home, which laments ‘increasing vitriol’ toward Israel’s founders days after gov’t lawyer rapped Declaration of Independence
By ToI Staff
Journalist Oren Kessler, author of 'Palestine 1936.' (Hadas Parush)
August 18, 2023, 7:21 am
What Matters Now to author Oren Kessler: 1936 Palestine’s missed peace deal
In ‘Palestine 1936,’ Kessler delves into dusty archives to bring to life the overlooked saga of the 3-year Arab Revolt that arguably forms the roots of today’s Middle East conflict
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
View of the David Ben-Gurion walking trail, Sde Boker, February 2023. (Courtesy/Dead Sea Preservation Government Company)
March 11, 2023, 6:45 am
New desert promenade will take visitors on Ben-Gurion’s favorite Negev walk
Sde Boker, where the first prime minister lived after retiring, gets an upgrade that aims to draw tourists while keeping their footprint small
By Danielle Nagler
Israelis protest against the Israeli government, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, on January 7, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
January 11, 2023, 1:44 pm
Battle over High Court exposes frailty of Israel’s piecemeal system of government
The center-left’s fears are reasonable, the right’s arguments authentic; both sides should get past the current shrill debate and restructure a broken system of checks and balances
By Haviv Rettig Gur
Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges holds a press conference while in Madrid, Spain, in 1963. (Getty Images via JTA)
November 11, 2022, 12:38 am
Renowned author’s passion for Israel, Judaism showcased in Buenos Aires
Jorge Luis Borges exhibit in Argentina National Library, co-organized by local Israeli embassy, set to feature events discussing Jewish themes in non-Jewish author’s work
By Juan Melamed
A US Ford 'Liberator' shown over Kiel, Germany, January 4, 1944. On July 10, 1944, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on an appeal by Auschwitz escapees for the Allies to bomb the death camp. (United States Army Air Forces/Design by Mollie Suss)
September 18, 2022, 3:04 pm
Ken Burns’ Holocaust documentary may be hard on America, but not hard enough
If the film is right and the US cared about the Jews’ plight during the war, then why did it oppose bombing the tracks and bridges that would have saved Jews?
By Rafael Medoff and Monty Penkower
Former IDF chiefs of staff (from L) Ehud Barak, Gabi Ashkenazi, Benny Gantz, Moshe Ya'alon and Gadi Eisenkot speak in an interview with Channel 12 that aired on August 26, 2022. (Screenshot)
August 27, 2022, 10:30 am
Ex-IDF chiefs: Lack of internal solidarity a bigger threat to Israel than Iran nukes
In conversation with Channel 12, five former military heads discuss their efforts over past three decades to foil Tehran’s atomic ambitions and their concerns for Israel’s future
By ToI Staff
David Ben-Gurion at home. (GPO)
July 9, 2022, 12:28 pm
‘No confidence I’m fulfilling my roles’: Archival trove reveals Ben-Gurion anxieties
Founding-PM’s diaries, in which he recorded everything he did — from watching theater to resigning — to be exhibited at Sde Boker, along with rest of ‘dream come true’ archive
By ToI Staff
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the state memorial ceremony for former prime minister David Ben-Gurion, in Sde Boker, November 10, 2021 (Haim Zach/GPO)
November 10, 2021, 2:15 pm
PM calls for unity instead of ‘arguments just for the sake of arguments’
At Ben-Gurion memorial event, Bennett says attacks on coalition are assault on Israeli ‘togetherness’; Herzog: Lawmakers, officials have a duty to strengthen statehood
By ToI Staff
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